Friday, August 22, 2008

Groin strain and how to encourage children

I went to the gym this morning and pushed heavier weights on each machine which seemed to earn me the right to get trained on 2 new machines, one was called an 'abductor' or something like that and involved mighty pushing with the groin muscles - if there is such a thing - or maybe they are called the abducts? - anyway I thought this would be very useful to do if one was preparing for childbirth. In my case I think it will just mean aches and pains in my groin tomorrow - which will give me a good excuse for a lie in followed by an unhealthy brunch.

Been a bit social today too. Had a cuppa with Kim next door and then went for a late lunch with Mo at the Takapuna Beach Cafe and a wander around an art gallery afterwards. We must have a similar sense of humour because we always manage to have a good chuckle about something.

She had read an article about how to encourage children. Apparently if you recognise something good by telling them "they were clever" it doesn't help as they won't know how to build on that but if you say "Didn't you work hard" then they have something concrete to focus on that they are in control of. Makes sense to me.

It made me think of my school report aged 14, where my form teacher wrote : "Amanda must realise she is growing into a young lady and not a clown" .... my Dad thought it was a great compliment but my mum never had a sense of humour anyway. I tried to find this report (I know I saw it recently) but tis not where I thought it was - dammit. I was going to scan it for here. There is another one where the maths teacher wrote"Amanda seems to be interested in everything other than maths during the class"- which was pretty much true. No-one ever told me "Didn't you work hard" - which now I think about it is probably for a very good reason. Maybe I was clever enough to get away with being lazy :-)